NL
So-so safari
On the plus side, drivers and other tour staff were helpful, kind and eager to share stories and make the trip more personal. Also, the food provided was decent.
Even though our safari experience at Amboseli was enjoyable, there were some issues.
- Chaotic. Upon departure it was revealed that we were joining other groups in Nairobi, from other operators; merging the safari participants became very chaotic, nothing was communicated or planned, many different people were involved and we were kept in the dark. Similarly, upon returning, we had no idea how or with whom we would get home after dropping off the others at the airport as nothing was communicated by the operator.
- Camp. We arrived at 22h (while we departed at 14.30 from our place in Nairobi) in the budget option camp. When we were taken to our tent the lights had been left inside which basically resulted in an unnecessary bug-fest. Then we tried to use the bathroom but there were still feces there which came up when we tried to flush... When we made inquiries someone did come over to 'fix' it but the bathroom floor was covered instead. Then we were left alone for the night, though we were promised a new tent in the morning. While the website promises the best of the budget camp, it was clear there were cottages better than our tents.
- Organisation. The point of the third day was to go for an early morning (6.30am) game drive and then head back to Nairobi. However, when we arrived for breakfast at 6am nothing was prepared and in the end we had to wait exactly and hour. While we had clearly communicated an allergy for eggs, the breakfast consisted of pancakes and omelettes. Furthermore, the car needed fixing and we ended up in the park after 8am instead. Soon after we got a flat tire, resulting in no time left to watch game as we had to leave before our 24hour park permit expired. Lastly on the way back, our driver kept falling asleep behind the wheel.
Despite these issues we had a good time in the Amboseli National park.
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
This safari company is actually a middleman
Like another review I read I was shortchanged 3 different nights. Julias, who collected part of the money up front, passed me on the second day to another crook named Victor, who took the remainder of the cost of the trip, then managed to put me in 3 different vehicles during the 7 days, put me in an igloo tent instead of a tented camp 2 different nights, put me in a $30 noisey hotel another night and somehow managed to get me to all the stops on different nights than the itinerary showed. And only one night in the Serengeti instead of promised 2. The last night I insisted to the driver to take me to Planet Lodge the last night on a hunch and it was so wonderful there I stayed there an extra night and I just dared them to make me move, which they did not. I had such a wonderful time, mainly due to some drivers that actually cared for my well being, even though I could tell they had to talk to Victor about me going to certain places I was promised, that I only asked Julias to refund me $150 for the 3 nights they cheated me out of a proper place. Two months later he keeps saying he will pay me, but let us face it, if you do not have $150 you don't have a real company. Julias has a fake safari company that just takes part of the fee and passes you on to the crook named Victor who makes most of his money by pocketing the difference in the price of the promised hotel against the crummy place he tries to put you. And feeds you to different vehicles to pocket some extra cash when drivers have extra room. But despite this I met some wonderful people on the trip and great animals . And I promised Julias if he did not pay I would write him up......so here it is. If you are going on your first safari all you have to do is make sure they are in the safari association and then you are safe......I did not know this until I talked to people in Tanzania.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Infrastructure Maintenance
I stay quite close to Pilanesberg National park and have been visiting the park from my childhood years. Although there are still a large variety of animals to see it is obvious that the numbers are declining especially the antelope which I presume is due to poaching from the nearby villages, not uncommon if one look at the state of the outside fencing.
What prompted me to write the review is the bad shape the park has fallen into. I remember the days where park maintenance especially roads were priority or so it seemed for the general road condition was kept in good condition. Unfortunately, that this not the case anymore. Also, the picknick sites I visited had visitors probably since there are no safety fences in place or completely discarded. Viewpoints are not getting the attention it should. I have noticed that there was some work done on new bridges, but it baffles me that the park accepted the bad quality work and finishing off concluded.
It is sad to see yet another part of government owned institution that are not receiving the proper attention it deserves and is sadly going backwards day by day.
Just whish our international visitors would put some pressure on the park management to start doing their jobs and look after the park.
PS. The decline of the park infrastructure cannot be blamed on COVID-19 like everything else as the decline has been observed for the last few years now.
US
Beware, you get what you pay for
First and foremost if you are looking for the economy version of a safari then WS Safari may be for you. Also be prepared for older Land Rovers, unexpected changes, and uniformed guides. Moses states the vehicles are well maintained and up to date which is far from the truth. Also Moses cares more about making money then customer satisfaction. He added 2 more people mid trip which made the small Land Rover we were in cramped. We were told to be at breakfast by 6am to get an early start but our guide wasp er an hour late due to picking up more guests. No one told us what was going on. Constantly there was a major lack of communication between clients and the safari company. Our guide who was nice but lacked information about parks and wildlife. He also misidentified several species of birds. More often than not the guests spotted the wildlife and had to ask to stop. On the final day we stopped at a tourist junk store and were told that another car would pick 4 of us up. This wasn't a problem but we were never told of this change. Overall we saw wildlife and if you are trying to do a safari on a budget then go for it. But Beware, you get what you pay for!
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
An excellent game park but let down by poor maintenance and management
We hired a lodge for a family of six at Hluhluwe Hilltop Camp which was excellent. During our three day stay we experienced the game park, including a game drive which too, were excellent. What was not good however was how the place was managed and maintained. For example:
1) There were only 2 x washing machines for the whole camp and both were broken!!! On inquiring I learnt they had been out of order for at least two weeks prior to our arrival.
2) Secondly, the swimming pool was full of green water. Completely unusable for lack of regular cleaning and maintenance. It looked as though the pool had been in this condition for weeks.
3) The shop, as advertised on the website was virtually empty of anything useful apart from small quantities of tea sugar plus two small loaves of bread. The shelves were empty due to nobody ordering stock and goodness only knows for how long. We had to waste a morning driving out of the park to buy groceries.
4) On several occasions there did not seem to be enough restaurant or bar staff on duty resulting in long waits.
I strongly urge management not to forget that things do breakdown and therefore have to be repaired in a timely fashion. Shelves don't restock themselves neither do swimming pools clean themselves. It's called management!!!
US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Aberdare National Park by Barbara And Doug
“Birding” tour in The Ark Lodge in Aberdare consisted of filling a bird feeder with fresh seeds - that was all. Also didn’t like the atmosphere.
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Not good
I do not recomend it to anyone. Problem is not in the camp. The probvlem comes, what you contract and what you find there. Mike send me Shiduli Lodge picture, but later spoke about Chisomo River Lodge, and my Family and me finalized in Chisomo Camp.
They are using Kuruger name!!?? I do not know why?? Kruger Park is something Fantastic; but this is an open zoo only.
DE
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Bitter aftertaste of being scammed
My wife and me made a 7N/8D safari with KenyaBushExcursions going to Amboseli, Aberdares, Masai Mara, Nakuru and Naivasha in early December 2015. We paid a total of 2780USD.
Overall we made many enjoyable experiences owing to the drivers and the parks themselves, and I really would love to give a better rating. However we have the bitter taste of feeling scammed by KenyaBushExcursions as we did not receive what we paid for in terms of accommodation and transportation – partially due to being dumped on an ultra-low budget safari joining group.
The details
The good:
-Santos was very responsive and accommodating in providing us with a customized itinerary fitting our wishes; pricing seemed OK
-We got to see many animals, we always felt safe and we followed our itinerary (except Aberdares see below)
-Our drivers (Stanley and Jackson) were overall really great guides, very knowledgeable and it was a great time. Especially the drive with Stanley in Amboseli was amazing, Jackson in Masai Mara felt a little bit like working down a checklist (lion check, leopard check, Giraffe check).
The bad:
1.) Scammed by 600USD on accommodation:
5 nights out of 7 nights we slept in cheaper accommodations than what we were quoted
a) In Amboseli we slept 2N in AALodge instead of Kibo Safari Lodge. There is a huge price difference between the two – judge yourself on booking.com of 200USD/ night
b) In Mara we slept 2N in Miti Mingo Eco Camp instead of Rhino. Our specific tent in Miti Mingi was really a dump, dirty and molded (think they also have newer tents though). Though Rhino does not seem hilarious, according to the resort web pages there is a difference of 60 USD/ night
c) In Nakuru we slept in Miale Hotel instead of Lanet Matfam. Lanet is also twice as expensive as Miale.
2.) Overloaded minibus:
For 3 days we were cramped with 10 people in the minibus though we were quoted a maximum of 7 people (so that everybody has a window seat). Believe me that makes a difference if you spend a lot of time on the road and also if you go out for game drives.
Change of accommodation and the overloaded bus were partially caused by us joining on a super-low budget safari by BigTime Safaris for the part of Masai Mara and Nakuru. The other guys only paid 250USD for 3D/2N safari or 400USD for a 4D/3N safari. I understand this is possible only with the cheapest accommodation possible and sitting in an overcrowded bus.
3.) Bad planning around Aberdares/the Ark:
Not having the game drive and rushing through the most expensive hotel in the itinerary was waste of time and money in this itinerary: we couldn’t make a single game drive in the Aberdares as we arrived in the Ark around 5 pm in the evening and already had to leave again at 6 am the next morning to meet the joining group. If we had known that we would have skipped it
4.) Attitude/unprofessionalism:
All of the above wouldn’t have been a drama to me, if Santos would have acknowledged that there were deviations between what we paid and what we received (accommodations!) and if he had provided us with a fair financial adjustment. However, it turned out to be very unprofessional:
a) Santos joined the last day in the car and he provided us with a cost break-down on the itinerary we received, however that was clearly fudged to match again very close to what we paid.
Actually I just noticed later that the devil was in the details, it was inflated in terms of transportation (quoted us 10 days of transportation for being less than 7 days in the car on a 24hour base) and also the quoted park fees were not the amount paid by the driver I know for sure.
b) There were all kind of excuses, such as that he already had to pay tax on the money received, hotel prices were similar (obviously not)…. If I was harsh, I would say that I don’t care, risk of doing business.
c) When they dropped us at the airport it got insulting, I especially remember two phrases “what do you want, you got to see all the parks” and “you are just angry that [the other part of the joining group] paid less than you; you know this is a free market with free prices” –seriously? We simply didn’t get what we paid…
To date, I still wait for a fair offer from Santos, unfortunately no reaction.
20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
A bit disappointing
2 of 3 activities were great but Falcon was terrible to book with
Activity 1 was operated by Falcon and was a guided tour on the Zimbabwe side. This was the biggest waste of money EVER. We paid $100 a head to have some one read us the signs at the front and hurry us along the whole way. What a waste of money!
Activity 2 was a Dinner cruise on the Zimbabwe side which was really nice but Falcon never gave us a booking receipt and so the operators tried to charge us an extra fee which we shouldn't have been charged
Activity 3 was the Livingstone Isalnd/Devil's Pool lunch tour. Amazing experience which we almost missed out on becuase again Falcon never gave us a booking receipt.
Recommend booking with literally anyone else!
US
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The park is well maintained and protected by authorities, but wildlife was difficult to spot.
Visiting Akagera National Park was my third game drive in Africa, followed by game drives in Kenya and Tanzania.
Akagera National Park is highly monitored and protected by local authorities against poachers. I was also told a percentage of the park fees are administered to neighboring communities so as to provide some economic income and deter poaching.
I know every game drive is different, and a lot depends on what and how many animals you see. However, my game drive in Akagera was really disappointing. I hardly saw any wildlife- zero in the first half of the drive. I think this was largely due to the fact that most of the park had recently been burned to 'control wildfires'. If I had known most of the park was recently burned, I would not have elected to go on the game drive as
I am sure this scared off most of the wildlife.
I recommend not visiting Akagera from June-August as this is when the park is burned. In addition, there is no off-roading allowed in the park. So, if wildlife are not close to the main road, it will be vey difficult to see them.